Quick Garlic Bread

A quick and simple to make garlic bread. 

Ingredients -

Oil

4x Cloves of Garlic, finely minced

Herbs - a sprinkle of oregano and thyme

Crusty Bread, sliced

Method - Add the minced garlic and herbs to a bowl and cover with olive oil. The flavours from garlic and herbs will infuse into the oil the longer that they are left however, the mix can be used after the garlic has soaked for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°c. Spread the garlic mix onto the slices of bread, place them into the oven and allow to cook until they are golden brown. Serve as a side to pasta dishes or as a simple snack.

JAB

Smoky Baked Beans on Toast

This is a recipe that I find quite difficult to pull off but it's very, very tasty when it works. Great served with toasted crusty bread and a little salad or as a side dish.

Ingredients-
1x onion, grated
2x garlic cloves, grated
oil for frying
2x cans of beans (in this case I'm using 1x haricot beans and 1x butter beans)
water from canned beans
2x tbsp cider vinegar
2x bay leaves
2x tsp smoked paprika
½x tsp of mustard powder
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
1x tsp black treacle
1x canned tomatoes
2x tbsp tomato purée
demerara sugar/salt and pepper to taste
crusty bread

Method - Firstly, drain the beans making sure to preserve the water from the cans. Add a little oil to a pan and heat to a medium temperature, next add the onions, garlic and half of the smoked paprika. Stir regularly and allow to brown over the heat for around 10 minutes. Now reduce to a low heat and add the water from the beans, cider vinegar, bay leaves and the beans to the pan and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. 

Whilst waiting, preheat the oven to 180°c. Now, mix in the rest of the paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg and mustard powder then simmer for another 5 minutes. Mix in the treacle, tomato purée and tinned tomatoes. Taste the mixture, this is a key point as too much mustard powder or too much treacle may have made the sauce taste unpleasant. To counter this add extra salt if it is too sweet or demerara sugar if it is too bitter.

Finally, add to a casserole dish and place in the oven. The dish will be ready to eat after around 20 minutes in the oven, however, the sauce will benefit from longer (around 40-60mins) as more water will evaporate from the sauce and create a stickier texture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Served with a side salad (root beer optional)

It is extremely easy to make very different versions of this dish by tweaking the amounts of certain ingredients based on your own personal taste, mainly smoked paprika, mustard powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt will effect the final outcome the most. 

More recipes coming soon.

JAB